Here Are Some Of The Most Interesting Villains In Gaming

Admittedly the title could have gone better. Anyway, I’ve been itching to do this sort of feature for a while now because it’s my prerogative that gaming’s greatest villains get a lot more work put into them and play a really large role yet receive only half of the recognition as compared to other aspects of a game, whether it’s the protagonist, the side characters or whatever else. Now of course, this sort of thing changes a bit when the game is primarily focused around the villain and the player but that doesn’t happen quite enough and in the interest of exposure, I’d like to use this opportunity to share a few of my favourite gaming villains with you all today.

Villainy, Sweet Villainy

Now I should note that each of the villains in this list feature here not because I just happen to really like them. In some cases I actually don’t like them. They exist here because they are without a doubt the most interesting antagonists that I’ve come across in my gaming experiences. Whether intriguing, unique or just plain bizarre, these villains are more than just cardboard cut-outs, more than just faceless evils that exist just because we need someone to fight (cough-Archdemon-coughity-cough). They exude something that makes you really want to know all there is to know about them… you know, as you attempt to foil their nefarious schemes.

GLaDOS

Appeared in: Portal series

“This was a triumph.” The obvious first villain is pretty much the First Lady of gaming villains, or she would be if she were still human. Spoiler? GLaDOS is everything that is right about gaming. She has the weight of the world on her shoulders, single-handedly (is that applicable here?) managing and keeping an entire underground laboratory, multi-tiered and uber-high-tech, and she only wants to be left alone to test, yet her ability to be snarky, taunting and cynical wavers on regardless of what is thrown her way. And she totally sings to you each time you finish a game with her in it.

GLaDOS makes appearances in the Portal games as you well know, beginning life in the first game as a domineering artificial intelligence who went mad and killed off all life in the Aperture Science research laboratories, except for a single test candidate whom she used for testing until no longer necessary, goading along with promises of cake until finally attempting to kill her off. That failed of course, and Portal 2 will forever hold the most spine-tingling, bone-chilling, pure-awesome moment in my gaming life where GLaDOS reanimates before the character’s eyes and says: “It’s been a long time,” before saying, “I think we can put our differences aside. For science. You monster.” I will forever love Valve for that moment.

The Marker

Appeared in: Dead Space series

“Isaac. Make us whole again.” Those are the words that made Dead Space a game in a league of its own amongst horror titles. It’s not that it’s an entirely scary game. It usually isn’t. But what Dead Space brings to the table is intrigue, and a story that revolves around what seems like an inanimate object, playing mindgames and toying with those it deems accessory to it, whether to benefit or hinder.

The Marker appears in both Dead Space games, initially fooling protagonist Isaac Clarke into thinking his girlfriend Nicole is still alive, making him headstrong and determined to carry on through what started out as a simple repair mission but turned into so much more. However The Marker was just using Isaac to further its own cause as was revealed to the player late in the game. In the sequel The Marker, or some version of it, returns once again to haunt Isaac, this time opting to taunt him about the fact that his girlfriend is dead and it’s all his fault, as it slowly chips away at his sanity. The Marker seems as obsessed with Isaac as others are obsessed with it. Damn unitologists…

Harbinger

Appeared in: Mass Effect 2

“We are assuming control of this form.” There is little that Harbinger said when it was around that didn’t make a deep chill run down your back, he was unnerving to say the least and on the insanity difficulty, he was also tough as steel nails to take down. But what makes Harbinger an interesting villain is the fact that he is the first reaper, something revealed in intricate detail during the recently released Leviathan downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 3.

Harbinger himself made an appearance in Mass Effect 2 as more or less the game’s primary antagonist, serving as an orchestrating general to the Collectors, guiding their strikes on strategic human colonies around the galaxy with the aim of harvesting enough life essence to craft the first human reaper. Harbinger’s purpose, goals and driving passion all make for quite the interesting revelation which form more of a commentary on life as we know it than anything else, and when you add in the fact that he’s quite the badass, you’ve got a winning villain combo.

Andrew Ryan

Appeared in: BioShock

“A man chooses. A slave obeys.” Those words and one other phrase would forever immortalise the pragmatic Andrew Ryan who dared to throw up a middle finger to the world and create his own world, free from laws and systems that catered to the few at the expense of the many, a world where a man was entitled to the sweat of his brow, as he said. The world he created was Rapture. And it was a fallen underwater paradise, a dystopia that serves to remind the player why laws and systems exist in the first place.

Andrew Ryan can be found around halfway through BioShock’s story, but will constantly communicate with the player, first coming across as a bit of a dictatorial douchebag but eventually revealing that he is a father, wounded. The patriarch of Rapture, who watched his paradise fall and must now live with this failure, he seeks to teach one last person a very valuable lesson. And boy does he… You all know the scene I’m talking about. I will never look at golf in quite the same way again, after that.

Handsome Jack

Appeared in: Borderlands 2

“So why don’t you just off yourself right now for me huh?” A new entry to the gaming world, Handsome Jack is in my opinion, the next GLaDOS of gaming. Or let’s call him a male version. He was undoubtedly my inspiration for this feature, for what that’s worth. A cocky, narcissistic, misanthropic jackass who loves the sound of his own voice and hates anyone who dares to challenge his authority. In short, a man in my own image. Brings a tear to my eye.

Handsome Jack appears in the recently released Borderlands 2 as the tyrant who aims to control all of Pandora, and will constantly berate the player, taunting you and commenting on your progress in a condescending way. Having failed to kill you at the beginning of the game, and he aims to finish the job eventually. But for the moment, he’s content to just watch and make fun of you as you progress through the game’s lengthy story, even commenting on your discovery of random things in places that are nowhere in particular, such as discovering a severed head in a box a solid few miles away from civilisation. You know what’s amazing though? The guy’s hilarious. You almost want him to send his latest barrage of insults at you so that you may laugh at what he has to say now. How often in gaming, I ask you?

The Joker

Appeared in: Batman: Arkham series

“There’s plenty wrong with me.” Probably the most famous villain in all of fictional content, The Joker is a worldwide name who needs no introduction. The purple-suited, green-haired villain is exactly why some people are afraid of clowns and exists quite simply to counter Batman, in every possible way. Some men just want to watch the world burn, and all that.

The Joker’s best appearances personally, aside from the excellent The Dark Knight movie, came in Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel Arkham City. Much like The Killing Joke in comics, The Joker completely stole the show, even when he wasn’t the main villain of the game as with the sequel. His departure from the sequel will go down as one of those ambiguous moments in gaming that will be debated until we’re all zombies. Or dead, if someone pops us in the head thereafter. Do I need to say any more about this one?

Letho

Appeared in: The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings

“Took you a while.” In The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings, there are two things which stand out for gamers. One of them is Geralt of Rivia, the mutated witcher known as the White Wolf who serves as the protagonist for the story and is a certified badass in most parts of Temeria. The other thing is of course, gratuitous amounts of sexual display and seeing how many females you can bed in a single playthrough. Six, by the way. But I would say that Letho is by far the more interesting character. There’s something about a character who knows all of your memories even though you’ve lost them, and is willing to talk to you about it even though he plays the part of your sworn enemy.

He might look like a giant oaf but Letho is actually a witcher himself, and a pretty good one. He singlehandedly plotted the deaths of two kings and would have got a third if not for Geralt, who had sworn to take him down in order to prove his guilt and clear Geralt’s name after the protagonist was falsely accused of regicide. Yet Letho not just spoke to Geralt in a civil manner but let him live upon their first meeting which resulted in a duel, and then allowed Geralt as many answers as he could provide in the final moments of the game, even allowing the player the option of how the story would end, whether by battle or a parting of ways. In many ways, Letho was the gentleman’s villain. He and Geralt were allies once and he has respect enough to allow the man some say in matters without entirely bending over and letting Geralt have a go up the old chocolate sewer. Of course, Geralt is too busy ploughing other fields to care anyway. Still, easily the most intriguing villain on this list and that’s saying a fucking lot considering some of these names.

Evil Ain’t Easy

As much as a story needs a good plot and a believable protagonist, don’t ever underestimate the power of a good villain. Sometimes villains carry the entirety of the experience on their shoulders and prove that they are on a level of their own, other times they just serve to make the experience fun. One thing’s certain, though: if we’re going to hate on someone, let it be someone interesting that we can enjoy hating.

If you think I’ve missed an important gaming villain or would like to name your own, or you just want to discuss one of the villains I’ve mentioned, feel free to comment and let your thoughts be heard, below.

Haha, yea, you have to start with GLaDOS, she in huge part made portal the great game it was! Quite difficult picking just one villain from the mass effect universe. The illusive man was very intriguing, saren corrupted/conflicted/confused and sovereign came out of nowhere in the first game.

can’t really think of any other ‘great’ villains, great list!

Trebzz

Harbinger and Joker were awesome and Handsome Jack reminds me of Eric Roberts for some reason.

CataclysmicDawn

Although he can be ally or enemy, I find Caesar from New Vegas to be interesting.

The very traditional mannerisms of the Dragon’s Dogma dragon were also intriguing to me. Though he wouldn’t have made this list for me unless the story and his character had been fleshed out more.

Michael Matusowsky

Uhm what about bowser?

Richard Dubbeld

i am very surprised that you did not include the Riddler, since you have a boner for him.

Richard Dubbeld

you really do love to quote the hell out of games don’t you?

Richard Dubbeld

oh i just finished dead space (at last you might say) great ending. and what a bitch (spoiler alert) Kendra was

Phil 123 Smith

Harbinger is not nearly as interesting as Illusive Man. In my opinion, him and Andrew Ryan are the most interesting and thought provoking villains in gaming. That said, I don’t have leviathan.

Also Irenicus’s motives in BG2 are interesting.

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

The Illusive Man is a sore point for me. Not a villain but more of an enigma, he was a fascinating character all through the second and third games but then he fell flat right at the end where I was expecting more from him. Not unlike Saren in the first game except you never cared for Saren.

http://www.facebook.com/KingCarloIII Carlo Serafino

GLaDOS and Andrew Ryan are two of the best villains ever! (Point aside, they’re the only two on this list I’ve encountered =P)

http://www.facebook.com/nadine.franzsen Nadine Franzsen

… mmm

http://www.facebook.com/yuvi3000 Yuveshan Pillay

Weird and interesting villains? “The Great Mighty Poo” from Conker’s Bad Fur Day (in fact, every enemy in that whole game.) Kefka from Final Fantasy VI (Yes, Sephiroth was cool and stuff, but Kefka was just an insane dude that destroyed the world and he was funny!) Gnasty Gnorc from Spyro? Biggest scariest dude in the land. You’re a kid dragon that’s like a fifth of his size and the whole time he runs away from you. Dafuq.